The present work characterized the metabolomic profile of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) in healthy horses, experimentally-induced airway inflammation by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) nebulization, and naturally-occurring asthma (n = 3 in each group). All animals underwent clinical and upper airway endoscopic examinations, and bronchoalveolar lavage. BALF supernatant samples were subjected to metabolic analysis based on gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Overall, 67 peaks were obtained from BALF GC-MS analysis, corresponding to 53 metabolites which were categorized according to chemical class, such as organic acids, fatty acids, nucleosides or their derivatives, amino acids, peptides or their derivatives, carbohydrates, and other compounds. Our results showed that the airway inflammation induction model with LPS produced the same pattern of metabolite changes as in horses with naturally occurring asthma. Metabolic pathway analysis was done by means of Fisher's exact test, for detection of metabolites over-represented in asthma affected-horses and LPS-induced airway inflammation as compared with healthy horses. The most significant altered metabolic pathways were fatty acid biosynthesis, galactose metabolism and citrate cycle. These results suggest that the airway inflammation induction model with LPS is a good study model for asthma-affected horses, due to the similarity of the profile of inflammatory cells (specifically neutrophils) and similar metabolic alterations found in BALF that occur during the inflammatory process of the airways. Further research may increase understanding of metabolomics disturbances and their significance in the pathogenesis of equine asthma.

目前的工作表征了健康马匹中支气管肺泡灌洗液（BALF）的代谢组学特征，脂多糖（LPS）雾化实验性诱导的气道炎症以及自然发生的哮喘（每组n = 3）。所有动物均接受临床和上呼吸道内窥镜检查，以及支气管肺泡灌洗。对BALF上清液样品进行了基于气相色谱-质谱（GC-MS）的代谢分析。总体而言，通过BALF GC-MS分析获得了67个峰，对应于根据化学类别进行分类的53种代谢物，例如有机酸，脂肪酸，核苷或其衍生物，氨基酸，肽或其衍生物，碳水化合物和其他化合物。我们的结果表明，LPS气道炎症诱导模型产生的代谢物变化模式与自然发生哮喘的马相同。代谢途径分析通过Fisher精确检验进行，用于检测与健康马匹相比，哮喘影响马匹和LPS诱导的气道炎症中过量表达的代谢物。最重要的代谢途径改变是脂肪酸生物合成，半乳糖代谢和柠檬酸盐循环。这些结果表明，LPS的气道炎症诱导模型对于受哮喘影响的马是一个很好的研究模型，这是由于炎症细胞（特别是中性粒细胞）的相似性以及BALF在炎症过程中发生的类似代谢变化所致。气道。